President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv and called on European leaders to increase sanctions pressure on Russia, in particular, to introduce a new package of EU sanctions against Moscow.
"Sanctions pressure on Russia is obviously not enough, dear partners. This is evident, first of all, in the growing number of attack drones and air strikes by Russian terrorists. We need more joint work against any forms and schemes of Russia's circumvention of sanctions," Zelenskyy said. "We also need to intensify work on a new package of EU sanctions. Any sanctions pauses increase the time of Russian aggression, and the pause after the 11th sanctions package has already gone too long."
The Ukrainian President also said that in September alone, Russia used 246 missiles of various types, 746 attack drones (including 538 Iranian "Shaheds") and 1159 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine.
"The vast majority of these strikes were against civilian targets. Everything is equally targeted by Russia: ordinary houses, central squares of cities, schools, elevators, grain warehouses, ports, our power plants. Ukraine is grateful for every unit of air defense provided by our partners! We have managed to save tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of infrastructure facilities," he added.
An informal meeting of EU foreign ministers is taking place in Kyiv. According to the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, its main goal is to demonstrate solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the meeting historic: it was the first time such high-ranking EU officials had gathered together in the Ukrainian capital.